Inside the gym of the Frank Baxter Youth Justice Center, a group of young people gather around Jo Kwon.
He steps them through their daily workout routine: 60 grueling minutes of burpees, push-ups, and squats.
They’re surrounded by brown brick walls and barbed wire – a stark reminder of their whereabouts – but this under-18 group is full of excitement and promise.
It’s their last day on their nine-week fitness program by Mr. Kwon.
“Today is graduation day,” he told the group.
But this is not the end or the extent of his help.
The 34-year-old will mentor the teens for an additional 12 months once they are released, helping them with education and employment.
Stronger Pathways Together, which has been running for nearly two years, combines exercise, building self-esteem, and preparing for life after incarceration, in a philosophy he calls G-code.
“What we offer is goal setting, grounding, gratitude, and mentally preparing these boys for life on the outside,” he said.
In nine short weeks, the program has already made an impact – one young man said Mr. Kwon taught him that “another life is possible”.
“It was inspiring because I aspire to be better in life,” he said.
In fact, Mr. Kwon helped him realize one of his biggest aspirations.
“Through it, I was accepted into UNSW which has always been a goal for me to go to university…Being the only person to go to university immediately and extended [family]It really is a goal.”
‘my life is over’
Mr. Kwon used his physique to survive his time in prison.
He had just turned 21 and was spending the night in the executive suite of the Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney.
The money he made from last night’s drug deal was put on the table.
But then he knocked on the door and thought it was room service.
The New South Wales Police Tactical Response Group, armed with automatic rifles and their faces covered with masks.
He was arrested and subsequently sentenced to 13 years in prison for directing a criminal enterprise.
He ended up spending nine years in prisons across New South Wales.
“At the time, I was thinking my life was over,” he said.
But it was in prison that Mr. Kwon met his first positive mentor, a white-collar criminal, who taught him the importance of education and self-esteem.
It changed Mr. Kwon’s mindset and turned his life around.
He studied commerce at university and founded his own non-profit social foundation CONFIT to curb recidivism.
“If it wasn’t for him, I’m thinking where my life would be? And if I had met a positive mentor earlier in my life, would I have gone to jail?” He said.
“So, I wanted to go back and change that narrative.”
break the cycle
He and his team of reformed inmates use their prison fitness skills to communicate and interact with incarcerated young men to prevent them from returning to criminality.
Fellow guide Adrian Masih meets Mr. Kwon inside the prison and soon finds “brothers” of like-minded fellow fitness enthusiasts.
He says that there are usually three types of people inside prison – gamblers, drug users and fitness addicts – who fall into the second category.
“We wanted to bridge this gap from within the system to the community…I think these are the basic aspects of a kind of return to the community,” Mr. Masih said.
“If you don’t have that support, it’s very difficult and that’s kind of the reason we were born.”
The program is supported by a large grant from Impact100 Sydney, a grassroots movement for change, in partnership with the charity Shine for Kids to prevent 80 young people from returning to prison.
In New South Wales, it costs $1,56 to detain a young man every day in New South Wales — nearly $700,000 a year, according to the latest government services report.
Nearly two-thirds of children aged 10-17 re-offend within 12 months of being released from detention, while around 80 percent re-offend across the country.
“This regression is something we really want to address, and we know we can do it with positive mentors,” said Shine for Kids Director of Operations April Long.
But we need other protective factors such as employment, such as education.
“A lot of young people here do a fitness course so that they also become personal trainers when they are abroad, because we know that hiring is a huge protective factor from not going back to crime, not going back to custody.”
The Frank Baxter Youth Justice Centre, in Karryong near Gosford, is the largest in NSW and one of the few that have implemented the programme.
Center director David Lowe said young people should demonstrate certain behaviors to participate.
“We’ve already seen a high rate of interest in terms of boys trying to improve their behavior, increase their skill set to be able to participate in these programs,” Lowe said.
“It relieves boredom, promotes positive mental health…it also promotes positive behavior change throughout the centre.
“The other boys see that this group of boys are participating in such a positive program that they want to participate in it [too]so it has an effect throughout the entire center.”
Starting with no funding, Joe Kwon now hopes to spread his program across the state and across the country.
“If we don’t get funding, we’ll still do it because that’s our passion, because we can see the difference we’re making,” he said.
“No money can be put on how we feel, and that’s the same with myself and my team, and that’s what we do – because we believe in what we do.”
